Instant Messaging (IM) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications are taking over the workplace as P2P transfers now account for 70% of all Internet traffic and more than 50% of corporate workstations are running an IM application. IT professionals face the challenge of managing and securing these applications, which last year were the point of entry into corporate networks for 40% of all computer viruses and worms. This book is for system administrators and security professionals who need to bring now ubiquitous IM, P2P, and IRC applications under their control. It provides specific protection strategies for the network and application layers by identifying and blocking malicious traffic.
Grasp Instant Messaging Security Issues See how IM bypasses any gateway antivirus scanning that would normally protect a network from infection.
Bypass AIM Restrictions Learn what to do about free AIM proxies that are available throughout the Internet.
Understand the Yahoo! Messenger Architecture Find out why its ability to use any available port to authenticate and begin communication makes it so difficult to block.
Manage Skype Vulnerabilities Do you know the differences between a standard node, a super node, and a Skype server?
The Biggest P2P You've Never Heard Of Meet the network behind Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and iMesh.
Explore the World of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Find out what makes IRC so attractive to cyber-criminals and predators.
DDoS Botnets Turned Bot-Armies Bot Masters make certain each infected machine will connect silently to the IRC server at the point of infection and on startup.
Methods for Botnet Control Understanding these methods will help you locate and remove such threats before they grow and become a problem.
Instant messaging (IM) and peer-to-peer services are steadily increasing in popularity and are becoming a greater concern for security professionals and network administrators. Instant messaging usage has increased dramatically in recent years, and has become a mainstay in corporate environments, with or without the approval of networking and security groups. According to a study by the Radicati Group published in July 2004, instant messaging is used in 85% of corporate environments in North America. According to the report, it was forecast that there would be 362 million instant messaging users in corporate environments, with768 million accounts, using the same public instant messaging services available to home users.
